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Sappho Speaks: What If It Really Is Gayle And Oprah, Part DeuxWhat Would Sappho Say?

Lectori Salutem! or L.S. (Greetings to the Reader!)

I know it’s been a long running joke in the lesbian community but we all know it is just wishful thinking, but let’s take that wish on into fruition and live in this world for a little while. I think we would find 2009’s political landscape much different for gay men and women.

Anyone who has watched Oprah grow (pun intended) over the years knows she is not someone to sit in silence on any issue. She is not a sideline player; she is a stand up and be counted, use her political clout when necessary, get the job done kind of woman we have all grown to respect, if not love over the last 25 years in broadcast television. She is certainly the undeniable QUEEN of the TALK SHOW and has taken on topics and people rivaling the great Barbara Walters – no disrespect Madam Walters.

So, what if all these years Oprah and her BFF Gail King were also lovers and spouses who came out of closet in the 90’s with the Clinton White House as so many important figures did, our Divine Miss Ellen for one, and have been slowly and steadily moving along the cause for equal rights and protection under the law for all human beings, black, white, gay, straight, poor, disenfranchised, etc. much as she has been doing only with a harder edge towards gay rights as she has towards sexually abused women, having been one herself.

Even Oprah with all her power has not been able to sway the mighty Republican led President and Senate to move on any of the issues closest to her heart until out of the corner of her eye in 2004 she sees an up and coming young Senator from her home city of Chicago and begins to bend his ear. She spots in him what many others have – a sense of duty, an intelligence, a leadership, a potential to greatness and aligns herself to this shooting star as one of his closest friends and supporters. This is a lucky get for a young politician for gay or straight rights, THIS IS STILL OPRAH!!!

As always, Gail is by her side for every meeting interjecting the political discussions with real life equality issues of the utmost importance to the two. As it is today, Gail is the editor-in-chief of O! Magazine and instead of their only being a picture of Oprah on every cover, since 1993 when they came flying out of the closet door, every picture has the mighty Oprah in the foreground with Gail in the background, each picture an Annie Leibovitz-worthy piece of art. The decision to change to this format was made by Oprah to change the country’s view of her from only strong black woman, incest survivor, philantropist, talk show host extraordinaire to include gay and proud without a flinch from the American people and by 2008 the subject was moot.

That hot young Senator from the great state of Illinois was now a serious contender for President of the United States and the entire gay community felt the electricity of change weighing heavy in the air. By election night, a storm had been brewing that the only thing possible was CHANGE. President Barrack Hussein Obama was elected to the highest office in the land and Oprah Winfrey and her partner, Gail King, had been assured that this administration would bring with it the support from the top Gay Rights legislation needed to be put into law. What a sweet day Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 was as a proud friend watched an Inauguration she would never forget.

It was in the early months that President Obama really shone. Ms. Winfrey and Ms. King were invited to the White House as the Partner’s Benefits Act of 2009 gave all the same rights and privileges married partners of Federal employees receive to domestic partners, including same sex couples.

Before the Congress was able to settle in to their partisan roles, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was struck down, leaving nothing in its place to bar opening gay men and women from serving in every branch or the military or National Guard. Oprah dedicated three shows to former military members previously discharged under the ban who were prepared to re-enlist and head off to war in Afganistan in support of country.

Last and certainly not least, the Federal Hate Crimes Bill, a bill that had been sitting in committee or dying a swift death each time it came up for a breath since 1999, a few months after Matthew Shepard’s horrible death on a fence post in rural Colorado, was passed in both houses an enacted into law. All of this occurred in President Obama’s first months’ in office. The gay community sits with baited breath as the idea of marriage for all weighs in at the federal level.

Did Oprah have something to do with all this? Well, since this is my fantasy and we all know only one of these things even remotely happened and no where near in the magnanimous way I described, I’d say if Oprah and Gail were a couple, it would make a huge difference in today’s political landscape.

The problem is, President Obama has roughly two more years (that last year is spent trying to get re-elected) of service and all polls are showing that the republicans are staged to take over the legislative branch like they did in President Clinton’s presidency making passing his policies for change virtually impossible without bi-partisan support. Since gays and lesbians have virtually no bi-partisan support to speak of, GET ON WITH YOUR CAMPAIGN PROMISES, SIR. YOUR CONSTITUENTS ARE WAITING.

Much Love.

Inspired by Sappho’s Muse.

MUSIC OF THE DAY
We’ll start out with the reality that the only way that Gail is Oprah’s secret girfriend is if she had been in a coma all these years and there we have our first song, Girlfriend In A Coma by The Smiths. The second was released yesterday and is the re-released version of WE ARE THE WORLD by a cornucopia of stars, some new and some from the first version. Rush out and download the video from iTunes. It’s wonderful!

QUOTES OF THE DAY
Don’t back down just to keep the peace. Standing up for what you believe in builds self-confidence and self-esteem.
Oprah Winfrey

We can’t become what we need to be by remaining who we are.
Oprah Winfrey